from the final result, is, that opinions, strongly maintained at the beginning of the discussion, were yielded up in a spirit of compromise, or abandoned upon the weight of argument.[1]
§ 1432. It is observable, that the period actually fixed is intermediate between the term of office of the senate, and that of the house of representatives. In the course of one presidential term, the house is, or may be, twice recomposed; and two- thirds of the senate changed, or re-elected. So far, as executive influence can be presumed to operate upon either branch of the legislature unfavourably to the rights of the people, the latter possess, in their elective franchise, ample means of redress. On the other hand, so far, as uniformity and stability in the administration of executive duties are desirable, they are in some measure secured by the more permanent tenure of office of the senate, which will check too hasty a departure from the old system, by a change of the executive, or representative branch of the government.[2]
- ↑ 3 Elliot's Debates, 99, 100; 2 id. 358; 1 Jefferson's Correspondence, 64, 65.
- ↑ Doctor Paley has condemned all elective monarchies, and, indeed, all elective chief magistrates. "The confession of every writer on the subject of civil government," says he, "the experience of ages, the example of Poland, and of the Papal Dominions, seem to place this amongst the few indubitable maxims, which the science of government admits of. A crown is too splendid a prize to be conferred upon merit. The passions, or interests of the electors, exclude all consideration of the qualities of the competitors. The same observation holds concerning the appointments to any office, which is attended with a great share of power or emolument. Nothing is gained by a popular choice worth the dissensions, tumults, and interruptions of regular industry, with which it is inseparably attended." (Paley's Moral Philosophy, B. 6, ch. 7, p, 367.) Mr. Chancellor Kent has also remarked, that it is a curious fact in European history, that on the first partition of Poland in 1773, when the partitioning powers thought it expedient to foster and confirm all the defects of its wretched government, they sagaciously demanded
vol. iii.38
